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Depending on the source
it is estimated that 17-20%
of children in America live
in poverty. Of children in
Oklahoma 25% live in pov-erty!
In addition minority
children are 2 - 4 times more
likely than white children to
live in poverty. Does this
poverty impact their educa-tion?
Of course it does! It
is well documented
that poor children
are much more
likely to suffer de-velopmental
delays
and problems with
communication, to
be isolated, to drop
out of school, and
to become teen parents. Is
there anything anyone can
do about it? According to
poverty expert Dr. Ruby
Payne, there is. If you have
not had the opportunity to
hear Dr. Payne then you
must read her book, A
Framework for Understand-ing
Poverty, ISBN 1-
929229-14-3. This article
will share some of Dr.
Payne’s insights into pov-erty
and how it impacts
learning.
Dr. Payne points out the
differences in various as-pects
between poverty, middle
class, and upper class. When
discussing poverty, she is spe-cifically
talking about genera-tional
poverty, i.e. those who
have been in poverty for at
least two generations. What
kind of characteristics are re-flected
in school by poor chil-dren?
Typically, such things
as disorganization, missing
papers; physical
aggression;
laughing when
disciplined; dis-like
of authority;
higher noise lev-els;
open display
of emotions;
thinking disci-pline
is about forgiveness
and/or penance, not change;
propensity to entertain; and/or
not knowing/using middle
class courtesies.
Personally, I have found it
incredibly enlightening to read
about the hidden rules among
classes. I grew up poor, not on
welfare just poor, and was sur-prised
to see how true the dif-ferences
are in these hidden
rules. There are still times that
I have problems because I
don’t know the rules for a par-ticular
situation.
Let’s take a moment and
Volume 4, Issue 2 Dr. Jeanne Mather, Editor February 2002
Who is Wilma Children, Poverty, and Schools
Mankiller?
Most of you probably al-ready
know that Wilma Man-killer
was the Principal Chief
of the Cherokee Nation. But
how, at the age of 31, did she
become the first woman to
hold this position?
Wilma was born in the In-dian
Hospital in Tahlequah,
Oklahoma in 1945. She grew
up on Mankiller Flats, a family
farm granted by the govern-ment
as compensation for the
forced relocation of her Chero-kee
grandfather. Wilma’s fa-ther
was full-blood Cherokee
and her mother was Dutch-
Irish. Wilma grew up in a
large family with six brothers
and four sisters. Poverty was
part of her daily life. While
they had no plumbing and no
electricity, as long as the rains
fell they could manage. But in
1957 when the Oklahoma
drought continued on for two
years they were forced to ac-cept
the BIA’s offer to move
them to San Francisco and help
them find a job and a home.
What they found was that they
had traded rural poverty with a
network of family and friends,
for urban poverty and isola-tion.
Wilma, however ,
eventually learned to manage
in the city and graduated from
high school and even took col-lege
classes . She met and
married a businessman from
Ecuador and was content being
a wife and mother to two little
girls for a time.
However, in 1969 Wilma
became an activist for Indian
(Continued on page 3)
discuss some of the hidden
rules. For example in terms
of possessions, the poor
identify with people, the
middle class with things, and
the wealthy with one-of-a-kind
objects or legacies.
While the poor think money
(on the rare occasion they
have it) is to be spent, the
middle class wants to man-age
it, and the wealthy want
to save/invest it. Food is
also an interesting idea,
while the poor worry about
if you had enough, the mid-dle
class worry if you liked
it, and the wealthy are con-cerned
with how it was pre-sented.
Similarly, while the
poor value clothing for its
expression of individuality,
the middle class value it for
its quality and label, and the
rich value it for its artistic
expression and the designer
name. While world view
tends to be limited to the
local setting for the poor, it
expands to the national set-ting
for the middle class, but
to the international for the
rich. Social emphasis means
including those they like for
the poor, middle class are
focused on self-sufficiency,
(Continued on page 3)
Table of Contents
Who is Wilma Mankiller?; Children, Poverty, and Schools
1
Successful American Women 2
The Literature Connection 3
When even the piggy
bank is empty

Depending on the source
it is estimated that 17-20%
of children in America live
in poverty. Of children in
Oklahoma 25% live in pov-erty!
In addition minority
children are 2 - 4 times more
likely than white children to
live in poverty. Does this
poverty impact their educa-tion?
Of course it does! It
is well documented
that poor children
are much more
likely to suffer de-velopmental
delays
and problems with
communication, to
be isolated, to drop
out of school, and
to become teen parents. Is
there anything anyone can
do about it? According to
poverty expert Dr. Ruby
Payne, there is. If you have
not had the opportunity to
hear Dr. Payne then you
must read her book, A
Framework for Understand-ing
Poverty, ISBN 1-
929229-14-3. This article
will share some of Dr.
Payne’s insights into pov-erty
and how it impacts
learning.
Dr. Payne points out the
differences in various as-pects
between poverty, middle
class, and upper class. When
discussing poverty, she is spe-cifically
talking about genera-tional
poverty, i.e. those who
have been in poverty for at
least two generations. What
kind of characteristics are re-flected
in school by poor chil-dren?
Typically, such things
as disorganization, missing
papers; physical
aggression;
laughing when
disciplined; dis-like
of authority;
higher noise lev-els;
open display
of emotions;
thinking disci-pline
is about forgiveness
and/or penance, not change;
propensity to entertain; and/or
not knowing/using middle
class courtesies.
Personally, I have found it
incredibly enlightening to read
about the hidden rules among
classes. I grew up poor, not on
welfare just poor, and was sur-prised
to see how true the dif-ferences
are in these hidden
rules. There are still times that
I have problems because I
don’t know the rules for a par-ticular
situation.
Let’s take a moment and
Volume 4, Issue 2 Dr. Jeanne Mather, Editor February 2002
Who is Wilma Children, Poverty, and Schools
Mankiller?
Most of you probably al-ready
know that Wilma Man-killer
was the Principal Chief
of the Cherokee Nation. But
how, at the age of 31, did she
become the first woman to
hold this position?
Wilma was born in the In-dian
Hospital in Tahlequah,
Oklahoma in 1945. She grew
up on Mankiller Flats, a family
farm granted by the govern-ment
as compensation for the
forced relocation of her Chero-kee
grandfather. Wilma’s fa-ther
was full-blood Cherokee
and her mother was Dutch-
Irish. Wilma grew up in a
large family with six brothers
and four sisters. Poverty was
part of her daily life. While
they had no plumbing and no
electricity, as long as the rains
fell they could manage. But in
1957 when the Oklahoma
drought continued on for two
years they were forced to ac-cept
the BIA’s offer to move
them to San Francisco and help
them find a job and a home.
What they found was that they
had traded rural poverty with a
network of family and friends,
for urban poverty and isola-tion.
Wilma, however ,
eventually learned to manage
in the city and graduated from
high school and even took col-lege
classes . She met and
married a businessman from
Ecuador and was content being
a wife and mother to two little
girls for a time.
However, in 1969 Wilma
became an activist for Indian
(Continued on page 3)
discuss some of the hidden
rules. For example in terms
of possessions, the poor
identify with people, the
middle class with things, and
the wealthy with one-of-a-kind
objects or legacies.
While the poor think money
(on the rare occasion they
have it) is to be spent, the
middle class wants to man-age
it, and the wealthy want
to save/invest it. Food is
also an interesting idea,
while the poor worry about
if you had enough, the mid-dle
class worry if you liked
it, and the wealthy are con-cerned
with how it was pre-sented.
Similarly, while the
poor value clothing for its
expression of individuality,
the middle class value it for
its quality and label, and the
rich value it for its artistic
expression and the designer
name. While world view
tends to be limited to the
local setting for the poor, it
expands to the national set-ting
for the middle class, but
to the international for the
rich. Social emphasis means
including those they like for
the poor, middle class are
focused on self-sufficiency,
(Continued on page 3)
Table of Contents
Who is Wilma Mankiller?; Children, Poverty, and Schools
1
Successful American Women 2
The Literature Connection 3
When even the piggy
bank is empty